


Artemis Fowl Senior

by TFALokiwriter



Category: Artemis Fowl (2020), Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Heartwarming, Post-Series Pre-Movie, artemis fowl senior speculation, rated teen and up for artemis fowl's swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:00:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24689533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TFALokiwriter/pseuds/TFALokiwriter
Summary: Artemis promised to himself to be there in his son's life unlike his vanishing father.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 31





	Artemis Fowl Senior

**Author's Note:**

> I found it weird that his mother was dead, I found it even more weird that he wasn't stealing anything from anywhere, but mostly just antagonized the fairies, dived into the artemis fowl tumblr page and was pleasantly given a theory that made perfect sense. --> https://speedygal.tumblr.com/post/620751335427588096/i-am-going-with-this-too-with-what-little-material#notes
> 
> And did research. 
> 
> lots of research.
> 
> even went to the artemis fowl wikia.

Artemis met a woman that he liked along his adventures and caught up with her. She was beautiful, smart, witty, sarcastic-- perhaps more sarcastic than he was -- with a flair for the unexpected. He made the plans and she -- more or less -- made them chaotic but entertaining compared to how the chaos that he had gone through with his own childhood. Chaos that made him smile. Chaos that all came to a halt when in 2007 came to a head when they had a child.

"What are we going to name him, Artemis?"

Artemis looked down upon the boy with a smile.

"I am going to do what my friends have been doing lately."

"What is that?"

"Name him after myself." He cradled the boy. "Artemis Fowl, junior."

"The third?"

"Just junior."

"We have a birth certificate."

"Just junior."

"Artemis, if you don't decide then he will be labelled as the second."

"I want Artemis Fowl to grow up with a better childhood, I want him to have friends, I want him to be better than I was when I were born."

His wife just smiled back at him in bemusement then it faded replaced by confusion. 

"Artemis, how old are you?"

Artemis looked toward her then winked.

"Old enough." Artemis said, slyly.

It was a accident that he aged slower than everyone else, a complete accident, he had anticipated of it being pulled off differently of his risky crime. It had been over a couple generations since that fatal data was returned to him and Butler fainted, Holly became exasperated, and Artemis was delighted with his grin, "I can be a criminal _forever_." much to their collective sigh over eight hundred years ago. 

"The second then." Hannah said.

"Hannah, just junior!"

Artemis couldn't stay annoyed when he looked upon his newborn son's face.

"Fine. . . " Artemis said as he began to smile. "But, he will always be Artemis Fowl junior to me."

* * *

"I will not cry."

It's Dom's words, the week after they come back from the hospital, that Artemis hears as he leans against the frame of the doorway. Dom is holding his son in his arms, cradling him, gently singing to the young boy. It strikes a cord in Artemis's chest as he recalls of what had only been so long ago, someone who he considered to be a father figure but never quite admitted to him. It's words that ring back at him, how Artemis recalled his father wasn't there after he vanished sometime in his life. 

It's strange watching history play out differently before his eyes watching humanity rise and fall after problems that had derived from the problem of the non-magical people. Eight hundred years felt so small and insignificant compared to his long life span. He had stolen many things but what he couldn't steal was something that was given to him. He watched as Butler's descendant cry a little even as he insisted, "I will not cry," repeatedly. He wondered, _why was that drilled into the head of Dom?_ He didn't recall that being drilled into the man that he nearly called father.

Artemis steps back and quietly tip toes away. He pauses at a painting then slides it aside observing the original crew; Holly with her brown skin smiling from ear to ear, Root standing in the middle, Butler's tall figure beside Artemis's short one, Juliet Butler holding her strange magical pet that had six legs -- it had stubby legs, fur, resembling a creature that had once been depicted as a fictional one by the name Appa -- with her highly muscled arms holding the small creature lazily remaining in her grip like a ragdoll cat.

"Is baby okay?" Hannah asks.

Artemis slips back into bed alongside her and pats along her thigh.

"Just had a nightmare." Artemis said as he loomed over her. "That is all he had."

Hannah smiles, her hand pressed against the side of her head with her elbow on her pillow, then plants a kiss on his lips and he returns it. They fall asleep, side by side, spooning under the covers. Hannah is the one spooning him and he wouldn't change it for the world.

* * *

Artemis plots out his next crime, this time to extract the serum that made him age naturally as the rest of the population three years after his son's delivery. It's risky, Holly Short is long gone and Trouble's daughter is seventy-one as her namesake, Domovio's very great grandson has the same name sake treatment but he lacks a number, just like Juliet Butler who is expected to arrive the following weeks after his son. It's in the world of the fairies, the elves, the centaurs, that he makes his extraction under a tunnel with Mulch as his aid. He leaps through the tunnel and is caught by the large hand of the dwarf then set to the ground. 

"Artemis, I hope going to this immortality research lab is worth your time."

"I want to grow old."

Mulch is startled by the reply, Mulch is old, his features graying, sagging, not once youthful and proud as they had once been.

"You have the opportunity to be the master criminal, thief, master of stealing forever--"

"I am giving that up the forever part."

"So, how long are you doing that stint?"

"Until the day I die."

"Does Hannah know?"

"Yes, that's why I have Butler's grandson posted on her. Just had a baby. Don't know if a enemy I have made may attack."

"You have got guts to make that decision."

"What else can I do?"

"Be there."

"You will have to do a lot of things to make that happen. Things are changing, Artemis. Lots of things. People are changing, like Opal. That cure isn't working anymore."

Artemis paused as the blood drained from his face.

"Who says that? Mulch? What's happening? What's happening that I don't know of?"

"Things. Terrible things. I have only heard from her former friends that she believes that her kind are being oppressed."

"I have to get to her--"

"ARTEMIS, YOU HAVE A FAMILY."

"I can fix this!"

"Artemis, she is more powerful than before." Mulch shook his large aged hands that were thinner and less hearty than they were before. He closed his hands then sighed, squeezing his eyes shut, painfully at a fact that crossed her mind. "She killed . . ." he sighed lowering his head before raising his head up. "Do you honestly think that a old friend of ours, Fadan, died of old age? He was a dark, motionless, lifeless statue when we found him."

Artemis was quiet.

"Then we'll get her later." Artemis said, with finality. "She is part of the Executives these days. Maybe, there is some good in her left."

"Artemis, if a cure could stop working on her, who's to say about the next cure?"

"Someone else will handle her. Not in my lifetime. I fought her once. I am not doing that again."

"You wouldn't recognize her."

Artemis's heart broke.

"I'll take your word for it." Artemis said. "And we are there."

They scanned the dozens of vials. Mulch waited aside as Artemis combed through them sorting through the concoctions. He smiled, pausing on the last one, part of a long file line of liquid, all labeled the same way in Fairy. He took three of them, set them into his pocket, then turned in the direction of the tall dwarf. They hurried through the hall then returned to the corridor where they had entered the facility. Artemis climbed up with a grin, his fingers digging into the bed of rock, climbing up and up with effort as Mulch was going slower behind him.

"Mulch, why don't you dig your way out?"

"I am old, Artemis." Mulch reminded. "Joints aren't in shape to do that sort of thing after doing it so soon."

"You're a Earthworm dwarf, said so yourself, you're full of energy." Artemis said.

"I said that when I was a young man." Mulch said with a chuckle.

Artemis looked down upon Mulch with a frown.

"Piss off." Artemis flipped a finger at him.

Mulch returned the gesture with a grin.

"No, you." Mulch said.

The men laughed as though it were old times again then they resumed climbing out of the tunnel until they were on the surface.

"That was too easy." Artemis said. "Almost like they anticipated this."

"They may have." Mulch said. "Everyone remembers that stunt that you pulled."

Artemis laughed, quite fondly, then sat down on a boulder.

"This should stabilize my aging," Artemis raised the first vial up. "This second vial should make me start aging again. And this one should make a wonderful appetizer." Mulch took out a bottle, popped it open, then set it between him and Artemis. "And this one should make a great back up for anyone who's aging is destabilized."

"Are you ready?" Mulch asked.

Artemis looked toward his friend then put a hand on the older dwarf's shoulder and patted it.

"More than ever, old friend." He uncapped the vial then the second vial as his friend sat down alongside him pouring himself a glass of his own with a stolen goblet. It was cold but warm between the men seated side by side in the mist of a world about to change for the worst or for the better. "To fatherhood!"

"To fatherhood!"

The men clunk their glass together and took long sips. Artemis threw the first vial over his shoulder then took a second drink.

"You okay, Artemis?"

"That was like I was drinking fire."

"Which one?"

"Both."

Artemis slipped out the vial, uncapped it, then sipped from it.

"Cures work that way, normally."

"I never imagined that all of them would be that way." he cleaned his lips with a sleeve. "Ah, that was much better."

"How did it taste?"

"Blueberry pie."

Mulch put a firm hand on Artemis's shoulder.

"I'll miss you, old friend." Mulch said.

"Me too," Artemis smiled back. "You were a great friend when I needed you."

"As were you." Mulch said. "My son is all sad and all that he can't be short like everyone else. Peesh, wearing my name and he hasn't grown up over THAT. Big baby has a height advantage and he doesn't like it."

Mulch shook his hand, disgruntled, but irked.

"Mulch, he will become content with his height with time and patience." Artemis said.

"I fear that he will spend his entire life in prison if nothing changes." Mulch said. "I was lucky. He may not."

"Things are changing." Artemis echoed what had been said only earlier.

"Yes, things are changing." Mulch agreed. "But, not when it is unwelcomed. I never welcomed my son to be that way into my house. He should be lacking in magic."

"Perhaps, he lacks magic." Artemis speculated. "Didn't you lose your magic that way?"

Slowly, Mulch smiled back then punched him in the shoulder.

"Artemis, keep being that new and improved man that I have been honored to grow as a person." Mulch said. "For my sake."

Artemis reached out then placed a hand on Mulch's shoulder and smiled.

"Of course, old friend." Artemis said. "Now, let's get wasted. Steal any more cups to share with me?"

Mulch grinned.

"Course!"

"Mulch,"

"Yes?"

"Do Dwarves live hundreds of years?"

Mulch chuckled then shook his head, reluctantly.

"I'll take that secret to the grave, Artemis Fowl."

Artemis held his glass up as a toast.

"Okay then, Mulch Diggums." Artemis said. "Let's get wasted!"

The two old friends laughed then Mulch poured glass after glass of the bottle.

* * *

Hannah goes to sleep at random points of the day as their son grows up. She gets weak and weaker and he notices this painfully as their son is kept in the dark. The memory of his ill mother comes to mind; Hannah teaches their son before she is too weak to surf how to do that. She teaches him how to skateboard while Artemis is off being a thief and consultant.

Artemis pops in and out, breathing in the normal, savoring it, as his denial fades to realization that she is going to die. They sit down one night and she talks to him in a low voice that she did on rare occasions and clenches his hand. They share a hug. They weren't going to grow old together. He did it for junior and her; this time things were suppose to be different. He steals common medicine that could be replaced then decorates the cave with it, wraps his hands in fabric, then proceeds to destroy everything around him screaming in rage and anguish.

She doesn't want magic to make her live longer.

Hannah lives in the world without all the exciting things that he lived in.

They were in two separate worlds and the plans that he made falls apart for their future.

He takes time off for her last days as it becomes difficult to shed the truth away --- _"I knew it all along. When does she leave?"_ \-- Hannah squeezing senior's hand, as he finds it difficult to speak. He had answers, normally, but not when his son was in front of him. The pain in telling his son that the cancer was going on its own time and could not be measured was hard. He knew the answer; if he neglected to say it then it couldn't be true, right?

"Truth is, we don't know." And it was true all the same.

They make the best of what limited time they have left and make wonderful memories, videos, photos, artwork.

_All to declare to the world; she was here, she was with us, she didn't go missing, she was loved and she made us feel loved._

_We were there all the way for her._

* * *

Twelve years later after the birth of his son, Artemis is the last of everyone still standing from his original crew. He doesn't hear anything of Opal or any of his old friends, Root's relative (living at eight hundred) continued asking for his help in very timely issues. Artemis collects artwork as a hobby until Hannah dies. It's the day that their lovely chaos comes to a end. Once she dies, he sets out a plan and begins to orchestrate it.

Artemis's son needed him more than ever, so they could grieve together, grow together, become new people together with a genius son going down a different path that lead to the one he knew after educating him of everything that was possible about the world that he lived in. Artemis made a plan should he die then his son be visited by Root and/or any enemies that he made. He made a plan that was fool proof. His lair handed down to his son as was his journal if the time came prematurely. 

It's the one thing that he wanted to do right with someone wearing his name.

A name to be associated with the good in the world that came with the dark. 

A name to be associated in his son's mind as good, magical, and innocent with that strange world below.

_"Did I ever tell you how those fairy stones ever come to Fowl Manor? Thousands of years ago, this is where the peace was made after the war between the human world and the Tuatha De Danaan. A human and a fairy met---"_

_"Just tell me when you're leaving."_

It's words from his son that breaks his heart; not knowing, anticipating him of leaving, thinking that he was a boring art seller who made empty promises, someone who will continue to drift in and out of his life. 

It's the mission that he had decided to be the last, to inform Root that he was resigning, to introduce his son to his world.

To see him smile, stare in awe, be in disbelief; to be aided of the beauty and the ugliness of the world through a different lens unlike how he had first discovered it. He didn't want his son to be alone when he first discovered it, he didn't want Dom to guide him down the road that Artemis had once gone down without a parental figure to tell him in better words of the world, it was going to be a father and son experience.

He watched Fowl Manor shrink until it were a distant specter.

**Author's Note:**

> OOps, I had it written as thirteen years later not twelve years later. sorry. my bad. fixed it. realized my error this morning as I was trying to go back to sleep after watching a starlink launch.


End file.
